I see my iPhone 11 Pro Max in Finder & in Music but get "The selected device could not be found" error when I click on it

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I see my iPhone 11 Pro Max in Finder & in Music but get "The selected device could not be found" error when I click on it

This is exceedingly frustrating, but I have the latest macOS Big Sur 11.2.3 update installed on my Mac Mini (Late 2014) and the latest iOS 14.4.1 update installed on my iPhone 11 Pro Max. This problem existed before these latest updates, but nothing has changed since. When I plug in and unlock my iPhone, I can see it in Finder under the "Locations" section, and under "Devices" on the Music app, so clearly these applications and my Mac recognize my iPhone. But when I click on it I get the error, "The selected device could not be found".

In my Music app on the Mac, I'm also seeing approximately 50% of my music, which includes music I had uploaded, not just music I purchased in iTunes, greyed out with a "Cloud Status" that says "Waiting" as though it's syncing...except it's not.

I first went through Apple Support txt edition, then they set me up for phone support. Neither person was much help here despite trying lots of things. Neither seemed like a great troubleshooter though, so my confidence that someone on a helpline can help me here is quite low. Now throwing a Hail Mary here, in hopes that someone has a clue what's going wrong here and how to fix it.

Thankful in advance for any knowledgeable person's consideration and thoughts on this.

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Mar 9, 2021 11:06 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

278,395 points

Mar 10, 2021 2:10 AM in response to P-Dash

Try rebooting the phone and connect to USB again to see if the device will show properly this time. If needs be see About the 'Trust This Computer' alert on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support and reset your trust settings, then trust the computer when you connect it again.

For the greyed out tracks issue try signing out of the iTunes Store on the device and then try syncing again.

Otherwise see this post on erratic syncing.

^^^^ Scrub that, it is for synced devices, not when you have an Apple Music sub, might be useful for someone else.

See Identify cloud status icons in your music library on your Mac or PC - Apple Support. You need to make sure that all of your music is matched or uploaded. In Music use File > Library > Update Cloud Library to nudge the upload/matching process.

tt2

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Answer 2

P-Dash Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 10, 2021 12:32 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks @turingtest2. I did try several reboots, installed updates, restarted both the computer and my iPhone, and still nothing. As well, I can see all of my music available on the iPhone, but half of it is frozen in "Waiting" status on the Mac's Music app. Part of me is wondering if Big Sur on my late 2014 Mac mini is having something to do with these probs. This weekend I may move everything to a newer MacBook Pro (circa 2016) to see if that clears up some of this nonsense.

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I see my iPhone 11 Pro Max in Finder & in Music but get "The selected device could not be found" error when I click on it

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